Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

Didn't see a thread for this so I made it myself.

Trailer:

For those who've watched it, what did you think?

Edited by DoubleOG on Sep 18th 2022 at 3:49:40 AM

I really enjoyed the show but kind of wish that CDPR wasn't so dead set on Night City always having unhappy endings. It's kind of the anti-GTA in that you're a murderous horrible criminal and you never get to have a happy ending. There's a reason that GTA IV is incredibly well-written but not many people list it as their favorite.

I also have made a Recap page for the anime. It needs some love: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/CyberpunkEdgerunners

This show was fuckin' ballin'. The art, animation, acting, action, style and faithfulness to the source material are all Preem. It's just plain Nova, Chooms. Don't miss this Braindance.

-cough- Seriously though it's great.

Can we remove that part in our wiki that regurgitates that "The loli stays!" hoax or whatever Rafal Jaki said on twitter they where just hesitant to add another character to the script because they where worried about bloat but where on board with Rebecca when they saw her in action. Jeez.

Mike Pondsmiths reaction to Edgerunners: THEY FUCKING NAILED IT.

Yes, Mike Podsmith is indeed active on Reddit.

I've seen the first three episodes so far and am absolutely sold.

^^^To be fair, that is kind of part of Cyberpunk genre in its core ^_^;

To be fair, the Loli stays is from an interview and their own story.

The what?

Anyway, I meant that Cyberpunk genre is pretty dark in general because at its core it isn't supposed to be "look at how cool this is" and more of "look at how inhuman things are". It doesn't mean there can't be levity though (I'm still confused and bit hurt by the snapback)

Edited by SpookyMask on Sep 19th 2022 at 11:31:00 AM

It's a meme:

https://twitter.com/reitard4/status/1570461463185170433

It's thing of the Cyberpunk genre itself.

I also feel like the sad ending fits for this story. Not all stories have Happy endings and this story need one.

Edited by Cortez on Sep 19th 2022 at 12:30:49 PM

Unpopular opinion here (well, i guess it's unpopular given show's universal praise, but given my lack of spoilers until now i might not be alone on this), but am i the only one who genuinely hated the ending while loving the anime itself?

Like, i'm not someone who is opposed to Downer Endings (though some would argue it's a bittersweet one). Hell, some of my favorite anime like Devilman Crybaby and Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade had those and i thought they were fitting and climatic. Now here...

Rebbeca got yeeted in the literal 5 last minutes of the show for what i consider to be a pure Ass Pull to shock the audience, David himself got beaten by Adam Smaher without even giving him a good fight or dying in a Heroic Sacrifice to take him down (I know he was in his literal last legs, but after being a One-Man Army for the rest of the episode i expected better from him), Lucy's own personal arc regarding the Old Net was never truly explored beyond her backstory in spite of the potential behind it, and adding to that, we never receive a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue showing what the hell happened to everyone after the conflict and instead get a 1-minute scene of Lucy going to the moon, that's it.

The whole thing felt like the creators wanted to make a second season for the show and end it in a Cliffhanger in the Final Boss but weren't confident in the anime's success given the OG game's infamous internet backslash, and decided to give us the usual ''Gainax Package'' in it's place even though Trigger had long given up on those. Maybe i'm missing something because i have never played the original Cyberpunk 2077 game, but still, it felt so weirdly rushed and out-of-nowhere even for Gainax/Trigger standards.

Ahem, sorry for the rant. I literally just finished watching it and had some baggage to throw out, and since most of my friends still haven't watched it entirely and the few ones who did are offline, i felt like here was the closes to "appropriate".

Edited by Lalapolpolpol on Sep 19th 2022 at 2:00:38 PM

Loved the anime. Loved the cast, the soundtrack was banging, you can tell Trigger took its time with the animation because its some of the best I've seen, the dub cast did their jobs very well, and more surprisingly it made me see why the 2077 game has fans at all. Still don't want to play it myself, but I get it now.

Nah. Adam Smasher was set up in two scenes before he started shooting people, on top of him being a long-standing part of the setting. Rebecca died to illustrate the complete hopelessness of the situation. And David didn't die in vain; he was able to get Smasher to focus on him long enough for Lucy and Falco to get away. As for Lucy's backstory being a loose end... Well, the character can always be picked up again.

Edited by ShirowShirow on Sep 19th 2022 at 5:56:48 PM

That and Canoically David couldn't beat Adam. V beats that vile fuck for good in the game.

Edited by miraculous on Sep 19th 2022 at 11:08:51 AM

Don't remind me of that. That fight's way too fucking easy! Cyber PUNK is right because that game was made for people that can't handle a REAL boss fight!

At least the fact its so laughbly easy makes it more fun after watching this show.

Well, he did appear beforehand (and even had a confrontation with David for one) but that entrace did come out of absolutely nowhere and did Rebbeca very dirty to say the least. To quote a friend of mine: "She was a main character and was given a death of a random faceless mook who is mowed down in a fight less than 5 seconds after appearing onscreen!". Hell, i wouldn't even be bothered that much by her death if it wasn't so undignified compared to everyone else on the team (besides her brother anyways). As for David, while yeah on hindsight his death wasn't in vain it was still somewhat lame for the main character. Like, he barely gets on a punch on the smug bastard before going down. If i were to make a comparison to a similar situation on another anime, look at Ashita no Joe and the badass beatdown the main character gives out before losing on the ending.

Even them, the rest of the elements i mentioned like the unresolved threads still made me dislike it. Like, i still love the show and i'm happy it "redeemed" Cyberpunk 2077 to the eyes of many and i hope that this leads to more works being released on the IP but i have a feeling on the long runthat the anime itself it will have a similar effect to the Attack on Titan and Mass Effect 3 where i'll go "Oh yeah, it's that cool show/game... that left me blueballed at the end" and stop me from replaying/rewatching it.

Edit: Oh okay, now i'm certain as someone who didn't play the game i must have missed some things in there. Still was hoping they would go for the Inglorious Basterds route and ignore what happened in "canon", heh.

Edited by Lalapolpolpol on Sep 19th 2022 at 3:48:57 PM

I think it was very good. And yea, the story very much gave off the vibes from the very first episode that this would not have a happy ending.

Plus You can beat the shit out of Adam Smasher and Kill him with Rebecca's gun as a form of Karma post Edgerunners update for the game, so It's definitely deliberate.

Man, I wish the Adam Smasher we got in the game was even half as intense as the show.

@Charles: ah oki ._. I'm confused though since isn't Rebecca just short woman?

There's some disarming subtext about Rebecca that you need to really look at to appreciate but basically, Rebecca has Mox tattoos and the implications are that she is going for a loli look deliberately.

Probably because it appealed to certain customers.

Squick

But yes, she is an adult young-looking woman, probably older than Lucy. They also thread the careful needle of being Older Than They Look without making her look like someone who actually looks like a child.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 19th 2022 at 2:14:10 AM

Explanation to the Rebecca thing:

Some shit website took the interview about Rebecca out of context and twisted the words to make a culture war story about how CD Projekt Red objected to Rebecca because she was a loli, but Trigger dug in their heels and said she needed to stay or they wouldn't make the anime.

What actually happened from the mouth of the guy actually in charge Rafal Jaki was that the team objected to the inclusion of a "Cute" character partially because cute doesn't mesh with Night City and because they where worried the addition of another character would bloat a story that has already been scripted. Once they actually saw Rebecca's design and test animation they where in, and Rafal Jaki has said she's his favorite even.

Last I checked This Very Wiki has the first version of the story written as truth.

Edited by ShirowShirow on Sep 19th 2022 at 9:24:41 AM

Can you please change that. Its really weird to put out a lie.

Yes, but the thing is that the "no lolis" vs "the loli must stay" is actually something the creators themselves are promoting.

Probably because its funny.

Does Lucy give anyone serious Deja Vu in terms of her face? Like, I feel like I've seen something like her facial design before, likely by Trigger.

Also, I'm shocked that this show ended up in Netflix's top 10 for a time. Can't recall when that's ever happened for an anime or any animated show before (that didn't already have a previous existence, so Avatar and others like don't count).